There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Jesus gave us a lot of instructions about mission. He said:
"Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field"
"Go into all the world and preach the gospel"
"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons."
"Freely you have received, freely give."
And Everybody knows that he was talking about Somebody else.
None of us wants to be a Nobody! And the Bible makes it pretty clear that Anybody can get involved! (OK, I’ll try to stop that now.)
If God is calling us as a church and me as a person to the task of bringing in the harvest - people saved from darkness into his Kingdom of love - how can I be a part? How can we get involved in God’s mission, not only in our communities, but around the world?
PRAY!
There is a very powerful way you can be involved in missions that doesn’t cost a cent and you don’t even need to leave home to do it. You know what it is, don’t you?
"Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work" Oswald Chambers.
"More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of" Lord Tennyson
A village in North Africa, no evangelist, everyone had the same dream about Jesus on the same night - the result of years of prayer?
A Muslim woman escaping the bombing during the first Gulf War stumbled and had a vision of Jesus helping her up. Tens of thousands of Iraqi’s turned to Christ during and after that war - the results of years of prayer?
The bottom line is, prayer works! Things happen when God’s people pray faithfully in the Spirit. So what are we to pray for when we pray for missions?
"Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" Matt 9.38
Pray for more missionaries.
God’s method for preaching the gospel is not programs or pamphlets or radio, as helpful and effective as these can be. His primary method is to send people. We need more people!
Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Eph 6.19-20)
Pray for missionaries on the field.
When my wife went to the Doulos many years ago it came at financial and career cost. Offered a senior OT position in NZ before coming. Turned it down to obey God’s call. Why? Because of the gospel. C19th missionaries to Africa would put their children into boarding school, kiss them goodbye and pack their things in their coffin. Why? Because of the gospel. Today missionaries still suffer the loss of children and partners because of lack of access to basic health care, and go back for more. Why? Because of the gospel.
These are normal people. They have the same fears as you do. They suffer stress and loneliness and depression and loss. Do they stand on their own? We can stand with them through prayer!
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should (Col 4.2-4).
Pray for open doors for the gospel - open opportunities, open hearts, open mouths!
When the Doulos went into the Black Sea in the early 1990s we tried to get into Bulgaria. It was a terrible time for the people on the ground. Eventually we were simply unable to go. But a door opened wide for us in Turkey - one of the cities was holding a book fair and asked us to go as part of it.
The teams in Malawi and Mozambique need our prayers. We can put up a shield of prayer around them. Through prayer we can stand with them as they contend for the gospel.
We can all get involved in missions through prayer.
SEND/SUPPORT!
Paul writes: "How can anyone preach unless they are sent?"( Rom 10.15)
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers... While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off" (Acts 13.1-3).
That’s a little bit different to how some people do it! A friend went to Bible College. I think he basically informed the church he was going and the next week he was off. The pastor was less than impressed! Neither my friend nor that college displayed any regard for the church’s role in recognising call and commissioning for a task.
When I went to the Doulos I had a keen sense of God’s call on my life. But OM, the mission I went with, strongly believes in the local church and wouldn’t let me go without my church’s endorsement. Not only did I get their endorsement, but most of my financial support came from the church and individual.
The Bible shows us the church is the missionary sending body.
After all, if God wants us to pray for more missionaries, where else are they going to come from than the church!? God does occasionally raise up mavericks! But they’re the exception.
The church gives covering and support and protection and accountability. We all need that, including missionaries.
But part of sending, is supporting.
And this goes beyond a single local church. Most churches don’t have the resources needed to support a missionary, so we work together through mission agencies like Global Interaction. The reality is that unless churches and individual Christians are willing to financially support missionaries, they simply won’t be able to go. Even those who are in a ’tent-making’ capacity where they earn income in the field often need some kind of support.
The church at Philippi was known as a church that supported missionaries - Paul in particular.
And when I was with you [Corinthians] and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers and sisters who came from Macedonia [Philippi]supplied what I needed (2Cor 11.9)
Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need (Phil 4.15-16)
Even Jesus had his financial supporters.
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out. Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means (Luke 8.1-3)
You may only be able to give a modest amount - but it all adds up. Most of us can get involved by sending and supporting missionaries.
GO!
There’s one other way we can get involved in missions, and I wonder if God is calling anyone here this morning to this kind of commitments.
Here’s Matthew 9.38 again with the verses that immediately follow:
"Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ’The kingdom of heaven has come near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give’" (Matt 9.38-10.1, 5-7).
Jesus tells them to pray for workers, then makes them the fulfillment of that prayer! These were 12 ordinary men. I wonder if they had expected to be doing the very same things Jesus did!
God calls very ordinary people to go into missions. The father of modern missions, William Carey was a shoe maker (albeit a very intelligent one!). C.T. Studd was a cricket player who famously gave up a successful sporting career to go to China. My wife’s grandmother was a doctor and her grandfather a businessman when they went to India, God used the skills of both of them. My father was a pilot, my mother a nurse. My wife’s parents were teachers. I know carpenters and engineers and students. Hey, I had no skills or trade when God called me! We don’t need to have anything to offer, all he’s calling for is our love and availability!
Is he calling you?
Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
The command is to go - is he calling you?
Going in mission doesn’t necessarily mean a long term commitment. Andrea and I went for two years. There are opportunities to go for a few weeks. Paul’s missionary journeys varied in the length of time he stayed in a city and he was largely itinerant.
It could be that, like Paul, God calls you to use your trade or skills. In many places you simply can’t go as a ’missionary’. You have to have a job. And many of you have skills that could be invaluable in this type of setting.
For however long, in whatever capacity, we can be confident that, when we obey the call, Jesus goes with us.
Is God calling you to get involved by going - short term or long?
Conclusion
There is a huge task that remains in telling the world about Jesus. The Bible says God doesn’t want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to eternal life. But many do perish because they’ve never heard the good news that God loves them and offers everyone eternal life through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
If we truly have a heart a heart after God, then getting involved in mission is not optional. The question is, how will you get involved? We’ve certainly started this journey as a church together - how can we go further with it? Make more of a difference for God’s Kingdom? Reveal Christ in all the world?
We can pray, we can send, we can go.
There are opportunities on the table in the foyer to commit to praying or supporting short and long term missionaries. I’d commend to you some prospective missionaries who have visited our church.
Or maybe you’ll go away from here and realise that God’s talking to you about going. I’d love to go with a bunch of people from this church, somewhere! I’d love us to be a church that raises up and sends out missionaries.
What about you? What will you do?
